Episode 710: Things Unseen
Things Unseen is the tenth episode of the seventh season and the one hundred and eighth episode of Burn Notice. Notes Bad Guys: James Synopsis A figure from Michael's past could reveal his cover in a crucial mission. Fiona's boyfriend is targeted by a gang, which places Sam and Jesse in the crossfire. Fiona is wearing a different pair of sunglasses and no one knows the make/manufacturer. Full Recap Michael is on a new mission and trying to figure out what is expected of him from his next mission, which has him leaving the country under the cover of darkness. Fi catches up with him and confronts him about James kills Snyder. He says there was nothing he could do because it would have blown his cover. Fi worries a part of Michael likes what he did. She says he's "too close to this." He insists "it's all a cover" and he knows "when to draw the line." "Like you did with Sonya?" she asks. Michael says nothing to that comment, gets on his boat and drifts off into the darkness. The next morning, Fi tells Carlos she went to see an old acquaintance and it was a "waste of time." He's headed to a meeting with "some guys" in his old neighborhood because someone came around to his mother's house and he wants to make sure there's no trouble with the old gangs. He initially doesn't want Fi to go, but she insists. Sonya meets Michael in the Canary Islands, still not knowing what the mission is. She hands him a photo of a man named Roger Steele and says he's been looking into Michael and "us." She tells him Steele is "too close" and "he has to go." Michael seems reluctant at first, but tells Sonya it won't be a problem and that he'll set up a meeting. Michael and Sonya heads off for a meeting with Steele who gives him a jovial salutation in front of his grand mansion after about a dozen armed men gave an extremely thorough security screening at the front gate. Steele has his girlfriend take Sonya for a walk around the property and a servant brings Michael some yogurt. Steele seems to know some of the more recent developments in Michael's life. Michael tells Steele he needs a job and Steele says he can't do it. He offers Michael some money but Michael says he doesn't want a handout. Sonya and Michael get a chance to talk by the pool and they realize there's no chance of getting to Steele in his place (all weapons are seized at the entrance). They make a plan to try to get him outside his fortress. In Miami, Fi and Carlos get to his old neighborhood to see "this guy Mateo," who now runs the neighborhood. Carlos gets through an armed thug's greeting in front of Mateo's place by showing a gang sign. Mateo gives Carlos a warm hug and after some pleasantries says that a guy named Nando knows Carlos "snitched on him back in '03" and he was jailed for 10 years. He says Nando's got a bounty on Carlos' head. Carlos starts to leave but Mateo says he can't let him go. Nando would mess up him and his family if he did. Mateo and others pull their guns and a guy smacks Carlos in the face with the butt of his gun. Fi fakes a dramatic cry and signals to Carlos to go for one guy while she sneaks up on Mateo and quickly works him into a chokehold, turning his own gun to his head and using him as a hostage to back easily out of Mateo's backyard and back to their car. Carlos goes back to the detective and tries to figure out how Nando found out Carlos snitched, and how to save himself. She tells him they need to get Nando on something else, like murder. She says Nando killed a drug courier and Carlos knows a guy who witnessed it. Carlos say he'll try. We next see Carlos and Fi trying to talk Jesse and Sam into going to one of Miami's roughest neighborhoods -- where Jesse says the cops don't even go -- to find Lloyd and get him to come with them. And it needs to happen right away. They agree to do it. Back in the Canary Island, Michael meets with Agent Strong in a busy market to tell Strong that Sonya wants him to kill Steele. Strong doesn't seem to worried about it. He reminds Michael that needs him to do "whatever it takes." Michael and Sonya watch Steele in one SUV and another SUV leave Steele's place and try to coordinate an explosive to go off when Steele's SUV drives over it. But Steele's team is using a signal jammer that stops Michael from detonating the device and also prevents him from radioing to Sonya, who is waiting to shoot any stragglers. Instead, Sonya winds up shooting at the SUVs with no result, and one of them stops to let out a bunch of guys with machine guns, who unload on her. She hides behind a tree trunk long enough for Michael to drive up, get her into his car and drive away. Jesse and Sam go to Lloyd's apartment complex posing as workers from the health department doing some checks after a refinery leak. They get to Lloyd's apartment and, once inside, reveal that they're trying to get him a way to safely talk to the cops because Nando could be coming after him soon. Lloyd panics and tells them to leave, reaching for a baseball bat. Jesse gets Lloyd in a chokehold and Lloyd passes out quickly. Surprised, they decide to use it as part of their cover, taking Lloyd out through the crowd apartment complex and telling everyone he's had a seizure and warning them again about the refinery leak. Lloyd comes to and tells Carlos and Fi that he's not talking to the cops. He wants to get out of town. Carlos pleads with him to "do the right thing" and warns that Nando will find him. Maddy steps in -- this conversation is all happening at her house -- and tells Lloyd she knows what it's like to be afraid of doing the right thing. She tells him if he doesn't do it, he'll spend the rest of his life knowing that the blood of every person Nando hurts is on his hands. She touches his arm and he tells Carlos to let the cops know he wants a deal and protection for him and his family. Back in the Canary Islands, Sonya gets on her laptop and starts calling in an air strike on Steele's mansion. Michael insists that she give him one hour to finish Steele with a sniper rifle, killing just him instead of all of his security team. She gives him one hour. Michael calls Steele pretending to be in a panic and saying that a two-person hit team tried to attack him, making Steele believe it's the same team that attacked him. Steele says he'll get his team together and meet Michael, who tells him where he is and how to get there. Michael and Sonya wait on a nearby rooftop for Steele's arrival. Michael prepares to take the shot and still feels like he's betraying a friend. Steele arrives at the location and Michael already has him in his sniper rifle scope. Michael answers and hesitates for a long while, with Sonya urging him to "take the shot." Michael tells Steele, "I'm sorry," just before pulling the trigger and shooting Steele squarely in the chest. Sonya pats Michael on the shoulder and he stays still, completely stone faced. Sam tries to talk Lloyd through his meeting with the detective while Carlos sets it up. Carlos meets with the detective, who is annoyed that Lloyd isn't already there. An SUV rolls up and Nando and some armed men get out. It's now clear that the detective was the one who spilled Carlos' identity and was going to get paid by Nando for delivering Lloyd, as well. The situation escalates as Nando gets upset Lloyd isn't there, and the detective tells him to watch his tone. He takes this as a threat and shoots her. Lloyd, seeing all this, runs off. Carlos is stuffed into the SUV and Fi, Sam and Jesse get in their car and give chase. Nando calls Fi while he's torturing Carlos with a blowtorch. Nando wants Lloyd and says he'll give Fi until 5 o'clock -- which is an hour and 20 minutes -- to save Carlos. Fi, completely at a loss, calls Michael for help. She explains the situation and asks if maybe Sonya can help. Michael says he can ask and asks for everything he needs to know. Michael shows up and says Sonya is trying to go above Nando's in the drug chain, but meanwhile they have to buy Carlos more time. Michael says, since Nando has never seen Lloyd, he'll go in posing as Lloyd. Fi goes to Nando's headquarters with Michael as "the witness" but Nando quickly figures out he's being played and Michael fesses up to being a "messenger" letting Nando know that he needs to let him, Fi and Carlos go before he's killed. Nando doesn't take kind to this and makes a big show out of how he's going to have one of his men kill Michael. But then Michael's phone rings. It's Nando's drug supplier, Lopez, calling from Colombia. Nando is stunned and talks to Lopez on speaker. Lopez tells Nando to let Michael and his friends go. Nando resists this, telling Lopez that a murder could be pinned on him. Lopez then turns to "Chacho," one of Nando's men. Lopez talks directly to Chacho and reminds him of what he could do to Chacho and his family, then confirms with Chacho that he'll do whatever is asked. Chacho says he will and Lopez tells Chacho to shoot Nando. Chacho does, twice. Lopez tells Chacho to make sure Michael, Fi and Carlos get home safely. Michael meets with Sonya, who explains that they "put pressure on his supplier" and convinced him it was in his best interest to call Nando. She then tries to comfort Michael about having to kill Steele, saying it was "necessary." He asks what it was necessary for and she says, "For everything." She tells Michael he's "part of this" and that James "has plans for you -- big plans." She says James wants to meet soon and tells Michael to get some rest. A battered Carlos sits in the house he and Fi share with a packed duffel bag. He says he's moving out. He hands her a news article reporting an air strike on a compound in Colombia. It was an estate owned by Lopez and seven people were killed in the attack. He says Michael got the call from Lopez just after the attack happened. Carlos says he'll have to live the rest of his life wondering if it was worth seven people dying so he could be saved. Fi says she was only trying to save him, but Carlos tells her she's going down a path with Michael that he can't go on. She tells him she has no choice. Carlos leaves. Spy facts In the spy world, often the only things you know about a covert mission are your deployment orders and a list of equipment to bring. Sometimes, that tells you nothing. And sometimes, it can tell a lot. The make of your weapon tells you if you'll be in open combat, or firing from the shadows. The ammunition you're bringing can indicate whether you're there primarily to defend, or to kill. When you're leaving under cover of darkness, under a false name, you can be sure that whatever the job is, it won't be pretty. Whenever possible, spies like to know what they're getting into before they leave for a mission. When you ship out without orders, you can't really train or prepare. All you can do is wait and wonder what's coming. No one's more careful about security than a freelance spy. When you work in intelligence and you don't have the protection of a government, you have to assume that everyone is a potential enemy. Even your closest friends. A careful operative will have security as good as most military installations. Vehicles will be searched for explosives. And of course, nothing that fires a bullet or sends an electronic signal makes it past the gate. Bottom line: By the time you get inside, the only thing you'll be armed with is a warm smile. When you're in the field, having direct contact with your control officer is supposed to be a last resort. The risk of being seen together is enormous. If something goes wrong, people die. If you're willing to take that risk, everyone knows it's serious. Roadside improvised explosive devices come in many varieties. But they usually share basic features. Once a target vehicle is chosen, an explosive device is planted in the vehicle's path, and then detonated by remote control as soon as the vehicle is in position. Of course, that assumes that your target isn't using a signal jammer. The problem with signal jammers is they don't just make it impossible to remotely trigger a detonator, they also make it impossible to communicate with your team. And when you can't communicate, bad things usually happen. When a plan goes wrong in the field, the job is rarely abandoned entirely. The goals of the mission don't change, the methods do. The problem is back-up plans are usually that for a reason. They tend to be a lot messier and a lot more deadly. As a spy, you have to get used to deception. Your job is to engage with people, make them your friends, manipulate them. And ultimately, destroy them. It's one thing to do it to your enemies. You can think of your target in terms that aren't exactly human, like mission objectives. But when the target is a friend, it doesn't matter what you tell yourself. It feels like betrayal. Characters * Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen * Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona Glenanne * Bruce Campbell as Sam Axe * Coby Bell as Jesse Porter * Sharon Gless as Madeline Westen